Rules of Eave: Magic and the Church of Mankind

The Church of Mankind

[Sorry for the lateness of my post.  I have some serious family issues of which with I am dealing.]

The Church of Man is the magical might of the Empire of Tulath and their magical might consist of the great craftworks that they do.  From mightiest engine of war to the finest gossamer gowns made of silver and gold for a music box dancer.  They are responsible for the great public works, such as the carving the mountain of Narimath and the great gardens that surround the palace of the current Empress.  They have taught the Emperors and Empresses of Tulath, much to the frustration of Section Command. 

The Church of Man is a vast enterprise and the Tech-Priest are but one faction of the clergy.  Many years ago after they installed Tullson II the Emperor of the Tulath they was an argument about what they were to call themselves.  Unified Man it what they were called, but they needed something that will unify the people against the common enemy, the eladrin.  The Church of Mankind, or the Church of Man is somewhat of a misnomer.  They are not really a clergy and they do not worship a god, but they have grown to be the sword and gun, the armor and shield of The Empire.  They do not pray and the liturgies that they invoke are dwarven rites of power.

The Tech-Priests are the largest sect of the Church of Mankind.  They hold considerable power.  In game terms they use Craft as the ability to work their magic.

• Lay-Brothers (Craft +0) are simple laborers or the young who have the intelligence to serve as a Tech-Priest in the future.
• Tech-Priest Initiates (Craft +1) are the mass producers of the Church.  The simple enchantment that they know go into enchanting the raw materials that are used in the rest of the Church.
• Tech-Priest Adepts (Craft +2) fine tune what is made at the Initiate level.
• Tech-Priest Journeymen (Craft +3) are allowed to make the arms and armor for the nobility and military.
• Tech-Priest Craftsman (Craft +4) are the true Tech-Priests.  They are usually assigned to specific task or project.  It can be teaching the younger priests or being assigned to a mechanized unit
• Tech-Priest Master Craftsmen (Craft +5 or greater) are masters of their craft.  Currently there are over two-hundred Masters in the Empire.  One of the Master Craftsmen is chosen to represent all of the Tech-Priests.  Currently, that master in Hedric Croy.

All this being said, normal craftspeople can get their hands on enchanted goods, but they must be licensed in order to do so.  Many of the people are ex-Church members who then keep an eye out for those with a quick tongue and strong hands to be inducted into the Church.  With that there is a growing and thriving back market for the goods and materials.  It is these people that you should watch out for, for there is a rumor of smiths who have taken the dwarven magic to the next level.  Something about reading the runes carved into special icons to be able to cast spells on the fly.  A mighty feat indeed.

The Church of Mankind is ruled by an inner council made up of the same type of people that was in Unified Man.  They meet once every six months to determine policy that will shape and form society.

In game terms, a simple enchant would be adding a +1 to ancient arms and armor.  An uncommon enchant would be adding a +1 to modern arms and armor.  A rare enchant would be make or repair a mecha-suit or constructing a particle laser or other advanced weaponry.  Then you have got the big things like mecha that would require a lot of craftsmen.  The thing about it is that it takes time to construct and a lower level of craftsmen would be required to gather all the necessary components together.  As such, it would require a game that centers of the crafting to be of any use.

The Runecasters are a secret order of renegade casters that have learned to read the ancient dwarven runes to cast their spells.  Their special flavor of magic deals with heat, fire, thunder, earth and metals.  They should have spells that reflect those qualities.  They have the runes on them hidden in jewelry or other somewhat permanent manner that they must have in order to cast their spells.  A player that starts off may have one spell per level of Craft that they have.  There is a Runecaster whose body in covered in runes tattoos.  Unfortunately he has to keep himself covered lest he arouses suspicion.  Generally one does not use this method of casting the runes for they do heat up when cast.  The runes are therefore important to the caster as they focus the power within them to cast hence they are carved onto a totem.  The Runecasters operate in secret as if the Church of Mankind or the Empire should find out about them, there is no doubt about the fact that they would not see the light of day.  They would either be killed or put in a lab somewhere to be studied.